Submitted by Lew Newmark on Fri, 11/11/2011 - 07:47
It’s amazing isn’t. The thought of just how far our technology has come from the early 70’s till today. I still remember our first computer.
It was a “Commodore 64” unit with a keyboard, a wired mouse and that terrible (but at that time, state of the art) floppy disc hard drive. It was a nuisance to move that thing from one room to another if you wanted to have it hooked up to a particular television set. And never mind the floppy discs.
They were very easily damaged but it was the thing back then…it was new tech!
Of course by today’s standard that old Commodore 64 is basically a dinosaur when compared to the computer that you’re probably using right now to view this article. Are you looking at this article on a basic desk top unit or your laptop?
Or your ahead of the game even more, and surfing the web today on your “whatever type “of Smartphone, with its dizzying array of “apps”.
Or just maybe you’re reading this article on one of those new “tablet” units that just about every company is placing in front of us right at this moment, and with all of this new available tech out there for the taking the question comes to mind Is your PC unit (whatever it happens to be) becoming obsolete even as you read this article?
Outdated PC
I am going to have to say that yes, your pc is becoming obsolete. Let’s take a closer look at some of these new devices that have hit the market over the past year and see just what it is that they offer to the consumer…
The Apple I-Pad
Apple has always stood alone as far as their culture and their approach to the way we should think about technology. They are the “control” if you will when it comes to “downloadable content” storage. Their I-pod units enjoy a world wide appeal that other companies (yes, including Bill Gates almost monolithic Microsoft corporation) strive to emulate.
Their introduction of their I-Pad back in January of 2010 by the company’s then owner Steve Jobs was a moment that again changed the way we would look at a computer, and while Jobs’ recent passing may have been a bit of a curve in Apple’s continued path, none the less the company continues to enjoy the fruits of his labors. Apple introduced its second version of the popular tablet computer in March of this year, and at this point in time, that version has sold more than 15 million units world wide. That’s an awful lot of tablet computers being sold.
Under a tablet’s hood
So just what can a tablet computer do? Well pretty much everything that your laptop and desktop unit can do. Some of the things that they can do include such things as:
• 9.7 inches (25 cm) multitouch display at a resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels with LED backlighting and a fingerprint and scratch-resistant coating
• 256 MB DDR RAM built into Apple A4 package
• Store photos
• It has I-Tunes software installed or you can download the software
• It has the I-Books application that allows the user to access online books and it even has apps from competing companies Amazon and Borders in order to access their full line of books.
And then there are the other available apps for this particular device including health apps that hospital’s use to help with things such as their supply chain, business uses them to keep track of their patient’s health records, and lawyers use them to communicate with their clients.
So you are starting to get the idea correct? But what’s the real appeal here about these units?
Portability
The average laptop can weigh in at around maybe 3-4 lbs on average ( don’t hold me to the poundage) but these little tablets come in at 1.6 lbs on average and may go as heavy as 2 lbs. And everything is done on screen; through its touch screen interface so no need for that cumbersome mouse…wireless or otherwise.
What does this mean for the future of that laptop your using now? Well that depends on you and just how tech you want to go…in my case my laptop is just fine and does the job I need it to do admirably…but that’s not to say that somewhere down the road I wouldn’t be tempted to try out a new tablet or even review one if some company were offering one up?
Any takers?
Tags:
Can't get into it.
I haven't been able to find a practical reason to buy an iPad. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone and I would probably take a bullet for my MacBook Pro, but the iPad seems to be a weird hybrid of the two that I think wouldn't be necessary for me.
Obviously, I love Mac Products; they have never let me down. However, if I need to really work and write, I would miss the software and keyboard of a laptop. I do not like relying on a touch screen if I need to write anything at length.
I do know a few people that do love iPads. I know one person who bought an iPad for her grandmother, who has Parkinson's disease, so that she could use it as a means of communications. She has trouble speaking. Another friend bought it because he wanted to use the program garage band to record music, but did not want to purchase a laptop just for that. And a third who needed to replace his laptop, but did not want to spend very much. So, obviously, the iPad is filling a wide variety of needs for some people.